School City of Mishawaka to reduce school hours

MISHAWAKA, Ind.--- The School City of Mishawaka's Board of Trustees unanimously voted to reduce the school day for students. Starting November 9th, elementary school students will end their day at 2:15 p.m., middle school students will end their day at 2:35 p.m., and high school students will end their day at 2:30 p.m.

"As a superintendent I never want to ever consider making a recommendation like that but in a global pandemic, I think all things need to be on the table," said Superintendent Wayne Baker. 

The proposal was recommended after administration received many complaints from educators that they did not have enough time to effectively do their jobs, especially with the extra responsibilities brought on by the pandemic.

"Teachers have a lot more supervisory duties than they have in the past in keeping their students isolated," said Amy Foley, President of the Mishawaka Education Association. "They can’t share recess duties or before school duties and so there’s a lot more contact time for the students, a lot less time for them."

Some teachers have even complained they haven't been able to leave their classrooms for even a moment because of the pandemic.

"We’ve had a lot of elementary teachers saying they simply don’t have time to even use the restroom," said Foley. "There’s not a free minute in the day. They have to be watching their kids and monitoring everything."

The administration at the School City of Mishawaka says this proposal is a short term fix but it looking into long term solutions. 

"We’re going to look at personnel and see if we can add personnel, both support staff and also in teaching staff," said Baker. "We just knew we couldn’t do that one quickly."